The man was arrested in 2017 on suspicion of being a recruiter and smuggler for IS and of planning an attack. Tunisia accused him of involvement in the 2015 attack on a Tunis museum and a 2016 attack on the border town of Ben Guerdane.

Germany is also trying to deport a 42-year-old Tunisian alleged to have once been a bodyguard for al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.